So the Community Might Flourish

A flourishing community of persons must care for both individuals and community.

Those of highly individualistic and highly communal cultures need to have a robust discussion of who flourishes first, the individual or the community. In communal cultures, the answer is likely community, while individualistic cultures would likely say the individual. That there are at least two deeply held and culturally embedded answers tells us it's an open question. To make it even more open, I suspect God's answer to this either/or question would be, Yes.

So, what do we do with this? First, individualistic cultures must intentionally remember the community, and communal cultures must intentionally remember the individual. For to maintain focus on one end of the spectrum leads to danger. Second, those on the ends of this culture spectrum, those along the spectrum, and those who are third culture (some combination of both) need to enter frank and respectful dialogue, seeking to understand one another from the other's perspective to hear the others critique. Together they might figure out what to do to help persons-in-community-in-Christ flourish.